Welcome back to our cozy giant tent and adept bakers on the Great British Bake Off, where the tenth season has not yet ended! That’s right, out there in the “real” world, the season finale aired and a winner has been chosen! But not here on GingesBeCray, where we still getta watch them bake amazing goodies in perplexing quantities for at least another five or six episodes. Join me in the delicious smelling past, like a cinnamon-scented bubble, as we roll into GBBO S10:E05 The Roaring Twenties.
We had a shocking ending last week, losing trucker Phil Thorne in a twist that saved Priya O’Shea’s adorable bob from extinction. Star Baker was earned by Steph Blackwell, followed closely by David Atherton. Those two are the ones to beat, you mark my words. So let’s find out what shenanigans we get up to tonight!
We open with a hilarious vignette with judge Paul Hollywood directing hosts Sandra Something (Sandi Toksvig) and Noel Folding (Noel Fielding); it’s only funny because I had no idea Paul had that in him! Goodon’im.
Time for the Signature Challenge already, Paul, Sandi and Noel are joined by judge Prue Leith as they introduce what’s in store for our baketestants. One second
The theme this week is The Roaring Twenties? That’s a BAKING.THEME? Everyone’s grandpa sits around and talks about the baking in the good old twenties? Did they even have ovens then? Someone get back to me.
ANYWAY the signature challenge is “four highly decorative custard pies.” Open-topped, too, with custard set and the connection to the theme is that people used to throw them in faces in the 20s.
…
For real.
…
Okay!
We’re using short crust pastry, so everyone has to bring the dough together quickly then chill it. You do not want to overwork this pastry or it won’t be flaky and it must be flaky.
Helena Garcia is making monster custard pies because of course she is and that’s exactly what I think about when I ponder The Roaring Twenties.
Prue also wonders about the twenties part…
Young Henry Bird is making Koolaid-inspired custard tarts and I am intrigued! Lookit how pretty!
Rosie Brandreth-Poynter is using a silicon mold like Henry’s, but filling it with something that makes Sandi drool, so high hopes there! She’s going to inject her whatsits with horse vaccine syringes, but new ones, so all class. They do look adorable.
Michelle Fecci-Evans loves flowers! And Crème Brûlée which I must go on record by saying I loathe. LOATHE. Why would you make a cold, wobbly sort of sweet thing? Why? When chocolate and berries exist in this world, you have to explain to me why you would accept this half-taste as a substitute.
And white chocolate isn’t chocolate, but we’ve been over this. SEVERAL TIMES.
Steph haaaates shortcrust almost as much as I hate Crème Brûlée and while chocolate but I wouldn’t worry about saying that in front of Paul.
Her tarts look alright, eh?
Everyone blind bakes their pastry and moves on to custard. Alice Fevronia is using a different citrus flavour than all the lemon and lime we’ve seen so far, she’s loading her desserts up with orange.
David got a haircut! He’s almost got that military high and tight cut, looks great fella! He’s doing a classic custard (cut to Helena pimping hers with purple food colouring which perplexed me until I realised that perhaps not everyone knows to just mix red and blue together. So companies manufacture purple food colouring for people who didn’t complete Kindergarten) with cutouts of flappers. Hm.
I don’t think I like that.
Drama queen Michael Chakraverty wonders aloud why the judges haven’t bothered him and poof! They appear. He’s using mango, ginger and lime in his custard and hm. I LOVE ginger!
Moar white chocolate.
Priya is making two different kinds of custard, I hope she has time!
The custard goes into the oven and it’s on to decorations! Rosie tries to focus on injecting her jelly with stuff but there’s a large host next to her chortling about crabs with herpes, so it’s a struggle. Also feeling challenged is young Henry, whose koolaid thingies haven’t set yet in the freezer. Michael calls that “classic Henry” which tells me he needs to open a book. Or a calendar.
David sings an unhappy tune, his custard is not baaaaaked.
It’s time for everyone to de-pan their tarts, high drama all around! Oh no Rosie!
One minute and the decorating is flying! Oh gosh, now Rosie’s jelly is soaking into the pie.
Judging time! And our David is up first with his Flapper Girl pies, Prue thinks they’re “exquisite” and so they are. I thought they might look silly, but he did an amazing job. HE GETS A HOLLYWOOD HANDSHAKE! It’s a perfect custard pie!
Now Michael is up, his treats are beautifully baked and balanced.
Priya’s look a bit rough, she ran out of time and somehow she boiled them. Thankfully, they taste amazing.
Oh no, as soon as Alice said she used an orange extract, I knew she was in trouble. I mean, not going home trouble, but definitely not winning this challenge trouble.
Steph has great tarts, of course.
Michelle’s crust looks too thick to me, you? The Crème Brûlée didn’t come off as planned, shame.
On to Henry and his pretty tarts, which do not sport not enough custard.
Sigh. I want to keep an open mind about Helena’s work but. Everyone else baked to a particular theme and she did this. And put in too much lavender, unfortunately.
Alas poor Rosie, nothing really came together for her tarts.
And we’re done the first round of our baffling Roaring Twenties theme! Henry didn’t have an excellent signature challenge.
But you could light the room with David right now!
We’re on to the Technical Challenge, this week set by Prue who advises the baketestants that they’ll need four skillsets for this particular foodstuff. And a deep fryer, apparently.
The bakers will be making 18 beignet soufflés! I even knew what those were, wooooo, which puts me 100% ahead of most of the bakers. They’re like dougnut holes! With a sabayon sauce of course. *Mystified looks abound*
Paul and Prue cackle about how impossible this will be for anyone to pull off, here they are!
Which doesn’t help Alice whatsoever.
It’s all bad for everyone. They’re all frying stuff but it’s not working out the way it should, except for maybe Alice doing okay. At least hers are round. Michael is really riding the struggle bus, trying not to cry as his second batch of shou pastry isn’t working. Noel helps buck him up and keep him in the game, he lives to bake on!
Fifteen minutes to the end and David did so bad. So bad. He doesn’t have light and fluffy balls, he has marbles.
Time for judging!
In order of worst to best, we have:
- 9th – David, obvs
- 8th – Michael
- 7th – Michelle
- 6th – Alice
- 5th – Rosie
- 4th – Steph
- 3rd – Henry
- 2nd – Priya
- And the winner is: Helena! I know, I was shocked too!
Michael’s rebounded, but wow, David’s on a rollercoaster! The judges and hosts chitchat.
It’s time for the Showstopper, the bakers will be making a Prohibition Era cake! Noel urges them to channel their inner “Al Capone in an apron”, producing a two-tier cake that tastes like their favourite cocktail.
I will be so very sad if there’s no Pink Lady themed cake. So very sad.
Oh no, I saw Michelle putting in coconut extract into her sponge, didn’t you read what I said above?? No extracts! the judges hate them, they make everything taste oversweet, metallic and fake!
First to be reviewed is Michael, his cake looks fun! Why is he annoying me so much? He’s so…self-absorbed? I dig the fact that he’s openly emotional but he seems to block out the sun.
Helena is using the publication date of Bram Stoker’s Dracula as a loophole. Sigh.
And now everyone else’s, so you don’t have to listen to me yammering on.
Whoops, there are FOUR Piña Colada cakes!
And two White Russians!
Prue suggested that Rosie’s cake better be as awesome as the design and Rosie and I both gulped in unison. She’s in troublllllleeee.
Tiny wee cakes are coming out of the oven, to be followed by slightly bigger cakes and so on and so forth. I am concerned watching David pour Amaretto liberally all over his sponges, it’s such a strong flavour. He did mention he doesn’t drink, so he may not understand how sweet and cloying is Amaretto. On the other hand, Henry is misting his cakes with a spray bottle full of booze, so.
Priya is the only baker not using alcohol, that’s a bold choice. It’s so pretty, though!
Rosie’s ganache-covered cake looks…not good. I’m sorry.
Hahahaha Noel makes me laugh out loud with his descriptions of the crew; there’s the vampire (him), the Ewok (Sandi), the angry polar bear (Paul) and the posh lady (Prue). Hahahaha
He DOES look like an angry polar bear!
Oooh I saw a mirror glaze! Oh no. I fear we might lose Rosie, it looks AWFUL.
They only have half an hour to decorate, go off, Noel! No time! Priya takes a second to remind herself that she actually enjoys this, I have to do that sometimes too!
*Side note: ignore if you’re not into oversharing recappers and their home renovations. I painted one of the larger bedrooms in my house this weekend and it was lovely. Lots and lots of work, but I had all weekend and it made the time go by nice and quickly. There was one point where I was rolling paint onto the walls of a closet at midnight thinking I could probably have spread the timing out a bit but still: I reminded myself that I quite enjoy doing things like that. I’m getting to be quite a whiz with a roller AND a power drill.
Steph’s done early so she comes over and helps Henry because she’s lovely and this show is such an inspiration.
Judging!!
Michael is up first, his cake looks great. It tastes okay, but Paul says he’s got the colour, but not the flavour of the blackberries.
Sigh. Prue calls Helena’s cake a mixture of sinister and pretty, Helena says that’s her! Sigh. Paul’s not impressed with her piping, or the flavour of the cake that is dry and bland.
Henry gets props for his design and flavour of his cake, if just a tiny bit dry.
It’s just AWFUL. Too much chocolate and alcohol, Rosie.
David fares better with his semi-naked cake, unfortunately the layers are folding into each other. Hold on, David, you got a handshake today!
I was worried about Alice hand-drawing on her designs with a Sharpie, turns out the judges felt the same. It is striking, though, a really good cake that could have been fantastic.
Time management bit Priya again, but the flavour is good.
I heard people murmuring about how lovely Steph’s cake looks but I’m at a loss. It looks super basic to me. Paul’s astonished by her lime sponges, he’s never had anything like them! They’re delicious!
Michelle’s cake sort of looks like a bracelet to me. It’s disjointed. It’s also dry and has coconut flakes that aren’t working and I hadn’t even considered that we might lose Michelle but now I must.
We have the final judging chitchat, the bottom is so crowded this week. So crowded! We have Priya, Rosie, Michelle, Michael, honestly this would be a week I’d expect to see two go home to slough off our extra baker. This was a trainwreck of a week for so many strong bakers.
So, without further ado, we have:
Star Baker: Steph, which I expected
And going home are two: Michelle and Helena
WHAT.
What. Excuse me, one second, let’s take a look at this again
Helena won the Technical! And Michelle only just started slipping, were the judges drinking David’s cake?? Rosie and I are visibly shocked. But! You’re Top 9 in Britain, you guys rock!!
That just makes no sense, you guys! You GUYS!
No surprise about Steph, she’s so solid and consistent. I just don’t know if I thought her cake decoration was awesome, you know? And we’re out! Until next time for Dessert Week!
